White Sox Minor League Player of the Week (May 2-8): Clint Frazier

Around the System

It was a very busy week in Charlotte, with two big moves to start it off: Oscar Colás and Lenyn Sosa getting optioned back to Charlotte. However, Sosa was quickly back up, three days later. Sammy Peralta went up, made his debut, then was sent back down as well. Alex Colomé and Carlos Pérez are currently in Chicago, but probably not staying for long with Yoán Moncada currently on a rehab assignment and expected to finish soon, and Liam Hendriks with three or four more appearances left, including back-to-backs on Wednesday and Thursday. Billy Hamilton was promoted as well but looks like he will stick in Chicago.

To offset all these promotions, Edgar Navarro was promoted to Charlotte from Birmingham along with Alejandro Mateo and Ben Holmes. Tommy Sommer was moved up to the Barons to help cover that exodus of pitching.

Now, all the way down to Kannapolis, Mark McLaughlin is now with the Cannon Ballers to get his season started.

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White Sox Minor League Player of the Week

Clint Frazier .500/.647/1.333, 3 HR, 5 R, 5 RBI, 5 BB, 0 K, 1 SB

Clint Frazier was a high draft pick, a lauded prospect, but he just could not figure everything out while having defense and injury issues ... sounds like a White Sox prospect to me. He is coming off of a really poor 2022 season in the Cubs organization but does have some better offensive numbers in MLB than his new teammates. In 247 games and 852 plate appearances, Frazier sports a 105 wRC+ as a major-leaguer. He is a guy who gets on base, but the power never really materialized, and his lack of defensive ability has him at -0.5 fWAR for his career, even with that slightly above-average offensive profile. He certainly showed some power last week while still showing his knack for working counts and walking. Probably even more impressive were his zero strikeouts. Not sure if it is a good sign that Frazier is more or less knocking on the door to a call-up, because he isn’t very good out there anyway. But the bat can provide something, just another DH-type on a team that really doesn’t need another.

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Charlotte Knights

Davis Martin IL
Sean Burke 3 1⁄3 IP, 2.25 ERA, 3 BB, 3 K
Nicholas Padilla 3 2⁄3 IP, 0.00 ERA, 3 BB, 2 K
Jesse Scholtens 6 IP, 0.00 ERA, 2 BB, 4 K
Tanner Banks 3 2⁄3 IP, 0.00 ERA, 0 BB, 5 K
Sammy Peralta 1 2⁄3 IP, 10.80 ERA, 0 BB, 2 K
Oscar Colás .435/.519/.652, 7 R, 6 RBI, 3 BB, 6 K
Clint Frazier White Sox Weekly MVP

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Birmingham Barons

Matt Thompson 5 1⁄3 IP, 3.38 ERA, 1 BB, 8 K
Cristian Mena 6 IP, 3.00 ERA, 0 BB, 11 K
Adam Hackenberg .154/.267/.231, 3 RBI, 2 BB, 4 K
Bryan Ramos IL
José Rodríguez .227/.261/.500, 2 HR, 3 RBI, 1 BB, 7 K
Yoelqui Céspedes .300/.333/.750, 2 HR, 4 R, 4 RBI, 1 BB, 12 K
Luis Mieses .053/.182/.211, 1 HR, 3 BB, 9 K

Should we put up a get Cristian Mena billboard by 35th and Shields, because billboards are something this fan base does? He might be better than Mike Clevinger on the mound, and is obviously a much better person off it. Mena has thrown three straight quality starts with big strikeout numbers and low walks. Over the last 18 innings, he has two walks, 27 strikeouts, and a 3.00 ERA. That is really good overall, and exceptional for an age-20 season in Double-A. Mena really could not be off to a better start from an advanced numbers standpoint. His K-rate is better than 40%, with a walk rate just a tick less than 6%. If there is something to note, he will get hit hard, as Mena has allowed four homers already, but the low walk rate helps keep the ERA down. He is Somebody to Watch, and while he’s in a much different situation than Davis Martin was in 2022, the White Sox have brought up somebody from Double-A to MLB before.

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Winston-Salem Dash

Jonathan Cannon 7 IP, 0.00 ERA, 1 BB, 6 K
Drew Dalquist 7 IP, 0.00 ERA, 4 BB, 6 K
Jared Kelley 2 1⁄3 IP, 11.57 ERA, 4 BB, 2 K
Kohl Simas 5 IP, 1.80 ERA, 4 BB, 6 K
Norge Vera IL
Loidel Chapelli Jr. .158/.360/.158, 4 R, 1 RBI, 5 BB, 5 K, 1 SB
Wes Kath .154/.185/.269, 1 HR, 3 R, 2 RBI, 1 BB, 11 K
Colson Montgomery IL
Wilfred Veras .423/.444/.577, 5 R, 7 RBI, 1 BB, 4 K, 1 SB
Terrell Tatum .350/.500/.400, 6 R, 3 RBI, 5 BB, 7 K, 4 SB

Since Wilfred Veras nor Terrell Tatum are the overall weekly MVP, let’s concentrate here on Jonathan Cannon despite Veras and Tatum both having stellar weeks. Cannon was the third-round selection in 2022 and is already showing the better end of his draft scouting report in High-A. The walks are low (just more than 7% right now) while the strikeouts are something left to be desired, at just 21.8%. That is what his report said out of the draft, so it is nice to see it hold true in the pros. The contact against Cannon is really weak right now — 61% of the batted balls are grounders, which is unreal. The BABIP is at .293 so Cannon’s 3.18 ERA is not really that far off from where it should be. You still wish he was striking out more batters.

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Kannapolis Cannon Ballers

Shane Murphy 5 IP, 0.00 ERA, 1 BB, 7 K
Tanner McDougal 2 1⁄3 IP, 19.29 ERA, 6 BB, 3 K
Peyton Pallette 2⁄3 IP, 40.50 ERA, 3 BB, 1 K
Tyler Schweitzer 5 IP, 5.40 ERA, 3 BB, 5 K
Jordan Sprinkle .190/.333/.200, 2 R, 1 RBI, 2 BB, 7 K, 2 SB
Brooks Baldwin .375/.423/.792, 2 HR, 5 R, 8 RBI, 2 BB, 4 K, 2 SB

One of the few position players from the 2022 draft, and one of even a smaller group that received a bonus equivalent or higher than slated, was Brooks Baldwin. He has split time between third base, left field, and center field so far for Kannapolis this year. Baldwin is slashing .322/.394/.508 for the Cannon Ballers and he hit his first two professional home runs this past week. His 10.6% BB-rate and 18.2% K-rate indicates what he is generally good at: Putting together decent at-bats. Unfortunately, they result in singles too often. Now, that is probably because Baldwin uses the entire outfield to get his hits, so some of his power is sapped. Not sure at what point to start proclaiming Baldwin as somebody to watch, but finding a bit more power is a more obvious route than marginally improving his already-solid plate discipline.

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